4.8. The file_t and default_t Types

When using a file system that supports extended attributes (EA), the file_t type is the default type of a file that has not yet been assigned EA value. This type is only used for this purpose and does not exist on correctly-labeled file systems, because all files on a system running SELinux should have a proper SELinux context, and the file_t type is never used in file-context configuration[4].

The default_t type is used on files that do not match any pattern in file-context configuration, so that such files can be distinguished from files that do not have a context on disk, and generally are kept inaccessible to confined domains. For example, if you create a new top-level directory, such as mydirectory/, this directory may be labeled with the default_t type. If services need access to this directory, you need to update the file-contexts configuration for this location. See Section 4.7.2, “Persistent Changes: semanage fcontext” for details on adding a context to the file-context configuration.

[4]
Files in the /etc/selinux/targeted/contexts/files/ directory define contexts for files and directories. Files in this directory are read by the restorecon and setfiles utilities to restore files and directories to their default contexts.

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